Bitcoin’s $96 billion in derivatives open interest fuels BTC price momentum near all-time highs, but rising leverage use raises the risk of liquidations and market volatility.

Bitcoin’s $96B open interest shows role leverage plays in rallies, but there is a risk

Eric Semler says he enjoys being the “lone voice crying in the wilderness” 
with Bitcoin as most hedge fund executives think Bitcoin is a “fly-by-night 
concept.”

Bitcoin in a post-Trump world worries hedge fund execs: Eric Semler

XRP’s explosive rally delivers massive returns exceeding 300% for investors, 
as growing regulatory clarity and cross-border payment dominance spark surging 
confidence across the crypto market. Data Shows Explosive XRP Rally and 
Investor Windfall Blockchain analytics firm Glassnode highlighted the 
remarkable performance of XRP, emphasizing its substantial price rally and 
profit realization patterns observed over recent […]

XRP Soars 300% as Investors Trigger Massive Profit-Taking, Data Shows

CryptoInsightUK’s latest market briefing arrives with the sound of literal 
hammer blows next door, an accidental soundtrack to the pounding he expects 
traders to take before the next rally. In a thirteen–minute walkthrough of 
XRP, Bitcoin and Ethereum liquidity maps, the British analyst argues that the 
market is staging what he calls “a deliberate trap” designed to flush out weak 
hands, harvest stop-loss orders and maximise upside leverage for larger 
players—leaving retail participants “screaming, ‘Yay, we’re going to the 
upside,’ … only to find out they’ve been played.” The Trap Is Set, Warns XRP 
Trader He begins with XRP’s five-month down-channel that started at the New- 
Year peak, noting that price continues to hug the underside of a descending 
trend line. “We’re stuck below that trend line basically looking to see if 
this liquidity is going to get taken below us. My obvious opinion is that it 
is,” he says, underscoring the conviction that a sweep of resting bids below 
remains the path of least resistance. The flush, he contends, would “make our 
journey to the upside much better and much easier to navigate,” because it 
would reset funding, scare out late longs and reload the order book for what 
he still calls the next “parabolic expansion probably up towards the $8 to $12 
region.” Related Reading: ‘Out of Time’: XRP Consolidation Hits Final Moment, 
Analyst Alerts The trap, however, may not be a straightforward vertical 
collapse. Charts, he reminds viewers, “love doing something like” an initial 
breakout that rallies 15-20%, convinces traders the bear-phase is finished, 
and then abruptly reverses into the deep liquidity pocket below. “That’s 
exactly how higher-highs-and-higher-lows type situations are supposed to get 
you frustrated,” he says, openly conceding that the pattern looks engineered. 
The phrase he never uses—manipulation—hovers unspoken over the analysis, but 
his rhetoric leaves little doubt: “This is how they test everybody.” Bitcoin, 
in his narrative, may serve as the decoy that sets the trap. The benchmark 
asset has already slipped out of its own wedge-like consolidation and, he 
observes, “does like to do this sort of thing” by staging premature upside 
breaks. He sketches a possible march toward $115,000 that would “delay the 
inevitable” and then give way to a liquidity hunt of its own. Even so, his 
mid-cycle price band for Bitcoin remains $150,000 to $220,000. That upside, he 
argues, justifies dollar-cost-averaging into altcoins even while keeping “a 
tiny bit of dry powder” in reserve for the washout he expects. Related 
Reading: XRP 5-Wave Count Shows When The Price Will Hit All-Time Highs Above 
$5 A more elaborate scenario involves a temporary dominance surge in Bitcoin 
to the 66 to 74% range. As Bitcoin siphons capital, alts such as XRP would 
“bleed out,” take the downside liquidity target, and only then reverse as cash 
rotates back into their order books. He illustrates the dance on twin 
TradingView panels—Bitcoin on the left, XRP on the right—before concluding 
that the rotational setup is “not highly likely” because it requires several 
macro-scale dominoes to fall in sequence. Still, he refuses to dismiss it, 
pointing to the strategic reserve bill in Washington as the sort of narrative 
catalyst that could spark a temporary Bitcoin-only rally and demoralise alt- 
holders. Macro-risk flickers through the commentary—wars that could “shove us 
down” in the near term—but he treats geopolitical stress as a catalyst for 
final capitulation rather than a thesis-killer. “The upside is so large it 
almost can’t be ignored,” he insists, framing the present chop as a high- 
volatility pause before a structural up-leg. Whether that leg begins only 
after a full flush or emerges from yet another fake-out remains uncertain, but 
the analyst’s message is unmistakable: traders who chase breakouts without 
accounting for hidden hands risk being liquidated first, spectators to the 
parabola they hoped to ride. For now he is content to wait “for the market to 
do its worst trick,” believing that the final shakeout will announce itself 
through a sudden, depth-piercing wick. “You’re being played,” he warns. The 
admonition is stark: if the playbook unfolds as expected, the pain will be 
quick. “If we get these levels, that’s where I’m putting the last bit of my 
dry powder in[…]. It’s $1.80-ish, $1.90 maybe.” At press time, XRP traded at 
$2.16. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

Analyst Warns Of XRP Trap — „You’re Being Played”

Bitcoin derivatives traders turned cautious, despite steady inflows to the 
spot BTC ETFs.

Bitcoin futures premium falls to 3-month low despite strong BTC ETF inflows

According to reports, the web portal Coin Market Cap was seemingly 
compromised. The company posted a security alert on X after users noticed a 
malicious pop-up prompting users to connect their wallet. On June 20, 2025, 
Coin Market Cap, a leading cryptocurrency data platform, faced a security 
incident where a malicious pop-up appeared on their […]